The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1887-07-23
THE NEW AMERICAN.
| The Species of Humanity Developed IN
| the Great Plains of the West.

The Species of Humanity Developed IN
ths Great Plains of the West
The American man, the Drawer inn
AGNES. only developes himself and
spreads himself and grows"for all he is
worth" in the Great West. He is more
free and timber there. and unfolds
those generous peculiarities and large
ncsses of humanity which never blos-
somed before. The environment"
has much to do with it. The great
spaces over which he roams contribute
to the enlargement of his mental hori-
zon. There have been races before
who roamcd the illimitablc desert, but
they Travelled on foot or on camel-back,
and were limited in their range. There
was nothing continental about them.
as there is about our railway desert
travellers. who swing along through
thousands of miles of sand and sage
bush with growing contempt for
time and space. But expansive aud
great as these people have become under
the new conditions, the Drawer has a
fancy that the development of the race
has only just begun, and that the future
will show US in perfection kind OF
man new TO the world. Out some
where on the Santa Fc route, where
the desert of one day was like the deS-
crt of the day before, and the Pullman
car rolls and swings over the Wide
waste beneath the blue sky day after
day. under its black flag of smoke, in
the early gray of morning. when the
men were waiting their turns at the
ablution bowls. slip of a boy, per-
haps aged seven, stood balancing him.
self on his little legs, clad in knickcr-
bockers, biding his time, with all the
nonchalancc Of an old campaigner.
"IIow did you sleep. Cap? asked
a wcll-mcaning elderly gentleman.
well. thank yon." was the digniiicd
response; "as | always do on a
slceping-car. Always does? Great
horrors! Hardly out of his swaddling-
clothes, and yet he always sleeps well
in sleeper. Was he born on the
wheels? was he Graded in Il Pullman
He has always been in motion, proba-
bly; he was started at thirty miles al
hour, no doubt, this marvellous boy Of
our new era. He was not born in :
house at rest, but the locomotive
snatched him along with shrek and
a roar before his eyes were fairly open
and he was rocked in a "scetion. ant
| his first sensation of life was that o
moving rapidly over vast arid spaces
| through cattle ranges, and along can
yons. The effort of quick and easy 10
| comotion on character may have beei
| noted before, but it seems tn here L
| the production of new sort of man
the direct product of our railway era
1t is not simply that this boy is mature
but he must be different and no
bier sort of boy than one born, say, n
| home on a canal-boat; for whcthe
| he was born on the rail or not, he be
longs to the railway system OF civiliza
ton. Before he gets into trousers h
is old in experience, and he has dis
counted many of the novelties that usu
ally break gradually on the pilgrim II
this world. He belongs to the new, ex
pansive race that must live in motion
whose proper home is the Pullman
(Which will probably be improved i
time into a dust.ess, understanding
well-aired bedroom). and whose dc
nestle life will be on the wing, so t
speak. The Interstate commerce hi
will pass him along without frictio
| from end to end of the Union, and pei
haps a uniform divorce law will
enable him to change his mar
ital relations at any place whcr
he happens to dine. This promisin!
lad is only faint intimaton of wha
we are all coming to when we fully ae
quire the freedom of the continent, an
come into that eXpansiveness OF fee
ing and of language which charactc
ICES the Great West. 1t is burst I
Joyous exuberance that comes from tn
sense of an illimitable horizon.
shows itself in the tender words of
local newspaper at Bowie. Ariz., 0
the death of beloved citizen: "Deat
loves shining mark and she hit
dandy when she turned loose on Jim.
And also in the closing words of a Ne
Mexico obituary, which the koms'
Magazine quotes: Her tired splr
was released from the pain
racking body and scared alo
to eternal glory at 4:3O Denv'
time" We die, as it were, in motio
and we sleep, and there is nowhere al
boundary to our expansion. Perhal
we shall never again know any rest ;
| we now understand the term-re
/ being only change of motion-and "
5 shall not be able to sleep except on I'll
cars, and whether we die by DENY
5 time or by the ninetieth meridian,
: shall only change our time. Bless'
be this slip of a boy who is man b
, fore he is an infant, and teaches I
5 what rapid transit can do for our rae
, The only thing that can possibly hi
der us in our progress will be secor
, childhood; we have abolished first
Charles Dudley Warner, in Harper
Magazine.